Emma Raducanu will never win another Grand Slam but she’s still shut her haters up | Tennis | Sport

This September, it will be five years since Emma Raducanu made history as she hoisted the US Open trophy into the air. Aged 18, Raducanu was playing just her fourth professional tournament.

She had only completed her A levels a few weeks prior. Ranked 150th in the world, she came through qualifying and ultimately won 10 matches in a row – without dropping a set – to be crowned champion, the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam title. Since then, she has not won another Major.

She hasn’t won another title at any level, although she came very close in Cluj earlier this month, finishing runner-up at the Transylvania Open.

That’s just one reason why Raducanu has received more doubt and hate than most players on tour since her 2021 triumph. And for now, it seems Raducanu will never lift another Major trophy. But that doesn’t mean her critics are right.

For years now, the British number one’s doubters have suggested that she is a failure because she hasn’t backed up her US Open win and become a two-time Grand Slam champion. As if being a one-time champion is a failure.

Lightning can strike twice, and you cannot 100% rule out another Slam. But Raducanu has many obstacles to overcome before she can realistically contend for one again.

The 23-year-old has struggled with injuries and has had surgeries on both wrists and one ankle. She’s had some health and fitness problems at tournaments, retiring from 10 matches since playing her first tour-level event in 2021. She’s yet to even get to a second week of a Major since that fateful run in New York.

The game has also moved on. Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and Coco Gauff have become forces to be reckoned with at the biggest tournaments. And Raducanu would know – she lost exclusively to Sabalenka, Swiatek and Rybakina at the four Slams in 2025.

The current world number 25 has struggled to string together lots of wins. She won four consecutive matches at the Transylvania Open before losing in the final. It was the first time she won four in a row since reaching the Miami Open quarters last March.

So a Grand Slam title – seven wins in a row in the main draw, likely having to beat multiple top-10 players en route – seems out of reach now. But at least she has one.

Every player dreams of winning a Major, and very few succeed. Some may come painstakingly close but never get over that hurdle. But Emma Raducanu can forever say that she is a Grand Slam champion.

So why does she have to win another to be successful? Why is the one not deemed a success?

Whenever Raducanu ultimately loses at a tournament – be it her retirement in Doha last week, finishing runner-up in Cluj, or just a bad day at the office in Melbourne this year – in come the comments asking why she hasn’t won a title since the US Open and why we even give her the time of day if she’s not lifted another trophy.

Yet here is a player inside the top 30, who has three wins over top 10 opposition, who pushed world number one Sabalenka in two exciting matches last year, who just finished runner-up in Cluj without a real coach in her corner. And who, arguably most impressively, went from number 301 in the world at the beginning of 2024 – when she returned from her three surgeries – to inside the top 30 by the end of 2025. By most other standards, that would be seen as a solid rise in the right direction.

But because Raducanu did the unthinkable as a teenager and won the US Open as the 150th-ranked qualifier, that obvious improvement is not seen as just that – an improvement. It’s seen as not enough.

In reality, Raducanu was an inexperienced 18-year-old when she became a Major champion, and then everything else – her tennis, her body, her team setup – had to play catch-up.

In the almost five years since, she has learned what it takes to be a professional tennis player, competing on the circuit week in, week out. Yes, there have been plenty of mistakes and tough losses along the way, and she’s still learning even now, but that doesn’t discount what she has achieved in her career.

Right now, Raducanu is the 25th-best player in the world with a Grand Slam title under her belt. And in the brutal game of tennis, where only one player can win every week, that’s a success.

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